When a telephone service subscriber receives a notification of a voice mail message via a Short Message Service (SMS) notification, the subscriber must call a voice mailbox access number and then sift through other unheard voice messages to access a particular voice message of interest. Thus, while the notification is convenient as is commonly done today, the access problem to access directly and listen to a particular voice mail message of interest still remains.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for random access of voice mail messages through cellular Short Message Service (SMS) notifications in telephony networks such as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) voice, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) packet voice, and cellular voice networks.